That's not the part of the story that I'm interested in, anyway. The part that I'm interested in is all the personal stuff. I tried to base the powers on family archetypes.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
There is a common theme, though, in the stories I have told, which are usually associations of characters or families that are formed outside of a family circle.
I'm attracted to stories that deal with the family and what it's like to be a member of that family, whether it's together or apart, given the pressures that are put on it by the outside world.
Family tends to be one of the recurring themes in my fiction.
My stories are fundamentally about the love of family.
I suppose that when I'm building a character, it's usually related to what their family is like and who their parents are, as well as how I grew up - that nurture side.
I look at the story, I look at the idea and just try to think of it in terms of that whole body of myth and see where the characters fit in and what they ought to be doing-all those archetypes are there to play with.
That's the kind of motif I bring to the books - that people take charge of their own lives.
Whichever character I'm using and wherever I am in my mind dictates what kind of story I'm going to tell.
As a kid, I always liked reading stories where I had a power-projection fantasy. I wanted to be inside of a story where I had power and influence, was going to rise to power, was going to somehow influence my society.
I'm interested in telling the character's story, not my beliefs, political or otherwise.